Continuation and end of the quarter-finals this Thursday at Roland-Garros. On the Philippe-Chatrier court, the Polish Iga Swiatek, world number one and titled in Paris in 2020, will be opposed to the American Jessica Pegula, who reaches this stage of the competition in a Grand Slam tournament for the second time in her career. career.
Follow this tenth day of Roland-Garros live thanks to our special correspondents on site and throughout the day on Europe 1, the tournament’s official radio.
The main information:
- Marin Cilic qualified for the semi-finals for the first time
- Iga Swiatek qualifies, the day after his 21st birthday
- Daria Kasatkina also qualified for her first semi-final on Wednesday
First semi-final in Paris for Cilic, at 33
Croatian Marin Cilic, former world No.3 now 23rd, qualified for the first time in his career for the Roland-Garros semi-finals by defeating world No.7 Andrey Rublev in five sets 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (10-2) Wednesday. For a place in the final, Cilic (33) will face the Norwegian Casper Ruud (8th) or the young Dane Holger Rune, 40th in the world at 19 years old. Cilic, winner of the 2014 US Open, thus becomes the fifth active player to have reached the last four in the four Grand Slam tournaments, along with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. He is the first Croatian player to achieve such a performance.
After crushing world No.2 Daniil Medvedev in the previous round, the tall Croatian (1.98m) hit 88 winners, including 33 aces (for 71 unforced errors), to win after the very first super tie – break (in ten points) disputed on the Central of Roland-Garros, after 4h10 min of match.
The other semi-final will pit Friday Rafael Nadal, thirteen times crowned on Parisian clay and Novak Djokovic’s scorer in a memorable clash completed overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, to world No.3 Alexander Zverev.
Kasatkina wins Russian duel and advances to first Grand Slam semi-final
Still going strong, Daria Kasatkina qualified for her first Grand Slam semi-final on Wednesday by beating her compatriot Veronika Kudermetova, 6-4, 7-6 (7/5). The 25-year-old Russian has still not lost a set in the Paris tournament. She is also the player who has lost the fewest games so far. To reach the quarters, she had yielded only fourteen. Only Dinara Safina in 2009 (five), Serena Williams (ten in 2013) and Mary Pierce (thirteen in 2000) had done better. And all of them had then risen to the minimum in the final.
This time against Kudermetova (29th), it was a little more (ten games conceded), but despite some tension at the end – she lost her serve while serving for the match, before winning at her sixth match point – she knew how to keep a cool head. “Keep calm, everything is fine,” she told her clan at the end of the match, although she admitted that the game was “nerve-hard and very close”. “It was a roller coaster, especially this second round. (…) It was a bit like victory was slipping through my hands. I’m glad I held on. And I managed not to disappoint me and stay the course mentally”, welcomed the Russian at a press conference.
Former winner of the junior tournament at Porte d’Auteuil in 2014, Kasatkina had already reached the quarters in Major twice on the senior circuit, including in 2018 in the Paris tournament. That year, she had reached her best ranking (tenth), before marking time and going through what she herself described as a “dark period” which made her think for a time of stopping her career, only 21 years old. But for a year, it has gradually returned to the fore: N.72 at the start of 2021, it is currently ranked 20th in the world.
She had a good start to the season, with 22 wins since the start of the year (5th best performance), and had reached the semi-finals in Rome. The one who aims to “make zero mistakes” in the Parisian tournament and not “reproduce past mistakes” will face the world No.1 Iga Swiatek and big favorite of the tournament on Thursday. “Tomorrow is another milestone, another mountain to climb. Maybe it’s better, actually, not to have so much time in front of me not to think about it too much,” Kasatkina said.
“Iga, we played several times together. I lost these matches, but it was different, it was tough, at the start of the year. (…) I want to win, I have a rage to win, too. So it will be a good match. And then you never know what can happen in the semi-finals of a Grand Slam so it will be fun, “said the Russian.
Swiatek offers himself a semi-final the day after his 21st birthday
World No.1 Iga Swiatek qualified on Wednesday, the day after her 21st birthday, for the Roland-Garros semi-finals by eliminating American Jessica Pegula (11th), 6-3, 6-2. The Pole thus continues her 33rd success in a row and settles alone on the podium of the longest invincible players of the 21st century, behind the Williams sisters (Venus 35, Serena 34). She was previously tied with Belgian Justine Henin. Jostled in the previous round by the young Chinese Qinwen Zheng (74th), who had taken a set from her for the first time since April 23, the Pole was able to raise the game at the right time against a pugnacious Pegula especially at the start of the game, despite numerous unforced errors (28 for 30 winning shots).
Born on May 31, Swiatek then signed on camera “I’m getting old, but I’m still fresh”, in reference to her 21st birthday, which she confessed in an interview not sure how to celebrate as it falls in the middle of Roland-Garros. “I don’t know where the limit is for a celebration, maybe in a few years I could watch the Champions League final in the middle of the tournament,” she joked. Like a little nod to the king of Parisian clay Rafael Nadal who went to watch the match between Liverpool and Real Madrid on Saturday evening.
Swiatek, the last member of the top 10 still in contention after the hecatomb of the first week, is a big favorite at Porte d’Auteuil. She appeared on clay in Paris after winning the 5 previous tournaments in which she participated (Doha, Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart and Rome). In the next round, the winner of the Parisian Grand Slam in 2020 will face the Russian Daria Kastakina, 20th in the world.